UPDATED: 2D Point Tracking now has updated options to make it easier to offset tracked points to avoid occulsions or objects moving off screen.

Audio Mixer Panel

NEW: Per track, and master track, audio mixing faders.

NEW: Levels keyframing.

NEW: Balance (panning) keyframing.

NEW: Solo and Mute.

NEW: Audio sync your clips with your audio.

Editing Tools

UPDATED: New keyboard shortcuts to set the in and out points in the trimmer.

UPDATED: Editing tools including J and L cut keyboard modifiers.

UPDATED: New shortcuts to link and un-link media on the timeline.

User Interface

UPDATED: Full Retina and HiDPI support on Mac and Windows.

NEW: Dynamic Toolbox property searching.

NEW: Dynamic Timeline layer & effect property searching.

UPDATED: Project remembers toolbox tree state and search states when switching between Composite Shots.

NEW: Effect presets added to many effects greatly increasing the ease-of-use of many tools.

NEW: Press Ctrl (CMD on Mac) in the viewer to scale object relative to opposite corner.

UPDATED: All keyboard shortcuts can now be edited, and may have been added.

The table below compares the Effects Panel in Hitfilm Express 2017 with Hifilm Pro 2017. Items in ITALICS (in the PRO column) are available in the listed Add-On Pack for Express. Items in BOLD ITALICS are unique to Pro and cannot be added with any Add-On Pack.

HF Express 2017 Effects

HF PRO 2017 Effects

360 Video

360 Video Transform (renamed from Environment Map Transform)

360 Video Viewer (renamed from Environment Map Viewer)

360 Video

360 Text

360 Video Transform (renamed from Environment Map Transform)

360 Video Viewer (renamed from Environment Map Viewer)

AUDIO

Audio Reverse

Balance

Cathedral

Channel Levels

Echo

Large Room

Medium Room

Pitch

Shortwave Radio

Small Room

Telephone

Tone

AUDIO

Audio Reverse

Balance

Cathedral

Channel Levels

Doppler Shift

Echo

Equalizer (Starter Pack)

Large Room

Medium Room

Noise Reduction (Repair Pack)

Pitch

Shortwave Radio

Small Room

Telephone

Tone

Blurs

Angle Blur

Blur

Diffuse

Lens Blur

Motion Blur

Radial Blur

Zoom Blur

Blurs

Angle Blur

Bilateral Blur (Repair Pack)

Blur

Diffuse

Lens Blur

Motion Blur

Radial Blur

Zoom Blur

BCC 3D Objects (Add-on Only)

Extruded EPS

Extruded Spline

Extruded Text

Layer Deformer

Title Studio

Type On Text

BCC 3D Objects

Extruded EPS

Extruded Spline

Extruded Text

Layer Deformer

Title Studio

Type On Text

Channel

Channel

Channel Blur

Channel Mixer

Channel Swapper

Channel Time Shift

Color Space Converter

Color Correction

Auto Color

Auto Contrast

Auto Levels

Brightness/Contrast

Color Balance

Color Temperature

Crush Blacks/Whites

Curves

Gamma

Hotspots

Hue/Sat/Lightness

Levels Histogram

White Balance

Color Correction

Auto Color

Auto Contrast

Auto Levels

Brightness/Contrast

Color Balance

Color Correction Wheels (Starter Pack)

Color Temperature

Crush Blacks/Whites

Curves

Custom Grey

Exposure (Starter Pack)

Gamma

Hotspots

Hue/Sat/Lightness

Levels Histogram

Pro Skin Retouch (Repair Pack)

White Balance

YUV Color Correction

YUV Color Transform

Color Grading

Day For Night

Hue Colorize

Hue Shift

Invert

Three Strip Color

Two Strip Color

Vignette

Vignette Exposure

Color Grading

Bleach Bypass (Film Looks Pack)

CineStyle (Film Looks Pack)

Classic CineStyle (Film Looks Pack)

Color Cycle

Color Map

Color Phase

Color Vibrance (Colorist Pack)

Day For Night

Duo Tone (Film Looks Pack)

Grading Transfer (Colorist Pack)

Hue Colorize

Hue Shift

Invert

LUT (Colorist Pack)

Shadows & Highlights (Colorist Pack)

Three Strip Color

Two Strip Color

Vibrance (Colorist Pack)

Vignette

Vignette Exposure

Distort

Bulge

Chromenator

Derez

Displacement

Heat Distortion

Insect Vision

Magnify

Mosaic

Twirl

Waves

Witness Protection

Distort

Bulge

Chromenator

Derez

Displacement

Energy Distortion (Destruction Pack)

Fluid Distortion (Destruction Pack)

Heat Distortion

Insect Vision

Magnify

Mosaic

Smoke Distortion (Destruction Pack)

Twirl

Waves

Witness Protection

Generate

Caustics

Clouds

Dimension Rift

Drop Shadow

End Credits Crawl

Fractal Noise

Grid

Letterbox

Lightsword 2-point Auto

Lightsword 4-point Manual

Lightsword Glow Only

Pond Ripple

Radio Waves

Reflection

Sphere

Tile

Timecode

Generate

3D Extrusion (Starter Pack)

Animated Lasers (Sci Fi Pack)

Audio Spectrum (A/V Pack)

Audio Waveform (A/V Pack)

Auto Volumetrics

Caustics

Clouds

Dimension Rift

Drop Shadow

End Credits Crawl

Fractal Noise

Grid

Hyperdrive (Sci Fi Pack)

Letterbox

Lightsword 2-point Auto

Lightsword 4-point Manual

Lightsword Glow Only

Lightsword Ultra 2-point Auto (Sci Fi Pack)

Lightsword Ultra 4-point Manual (Sci Fi Pack)

Lightsword Ultra Glow Only (Sci Fi Pack)

Neon Path

Pond Ripple

Pulp Sci Fi Title Crawl (Sci Fi Pack)

Radio Waves

Reflection

Sphere

Split Screen Masking (Starter Pack)

Tile

Timecode

Wireframe

Gradients/Fills

4-point Color

Color Gradient

Fill Color

Radial Gradient

Gradients/Fills

4-point Color

Color Gradient

Fill Color

Radial Gradient

Grunge

Grain

Half Tone

Jitter

Noise

Shake

Stutter

Grunge

Film Damage (Destruction Pack)

Film Grain (Film Looks Pack)

Flicker (Starter Pack)

Grain

Half Tone

Half Tone Color (Starter Pack)

Jitter

Lens Dirt (Lighting Pack)

Noise

Scan Lines (Starter Pack)

Shake

Stutter

TV Damage (Destruction Pack)

Keying/Matte Enhancement

Alpha Brightness/Contrast

Crush Black/White Alpha

Erode White

Invert Alpha

Light Wrap

Matte Cleaner

Remove Color Matte

Set Matte

Spill Removal

Chroma UV Blur

Color Difference Key

Demult

Difference Key

Hue/RGB Key

Luma Key

Keying/Matte Enhancement

Alpha Brightness/Contrast

Crush Black/White Alpha

Erode White

Invert Alpha

Light Wrap

Matte Cleaner

Remove Color Matte

Set Matte

Spill Removal

Chroma Key

Chroma UV Blur

Color Difference Key

Demult

Difference Key

Hue/RGB Key

Luma Key

Lights & Flares

Auto Light Flares

Glow

Light Flares

Neon Glow

Lights & Flares

Anamorphic Lens Flare (Lighting Pack)

Auto Light Flares

Auto Volumetrics (Lighting Pack)

Gleam (Lighting Pack)

Glow

Light Flares

Light Leak (Lighting Pack)

Light Rays (Lighting Pack)

Light Streaks (Lighting Pack)

Neon Glow

Particles and Sim

Lightning

Rain on Glass

Particles and Sim

Atomic Particles (A/V Pack)

Blood Spray (Destruction Pack)

Fire (Destruction Pack)

Gunfire (Destruction Pack)

Lightning

Particle Simulator

Rain on Glass

Shatter (Destruction Pack)

Quick 3D

Bonfire

Falling Debris

Fire Explosion

Fluffy Cloud

Missle Smoke

Rain

Sci-Fi Shockwave

Smoke

Sparks

Storm Cloud

Quick 3D

Bonfire

Falling Debris

Fire Explosion

Fluffy Cloud

Missle Smoke

Rain

Sci-Fi Shockwave

Smoke

Sparks

Storm Cloud

Scene

Parallax

Scene

Parallax

Projector

Scopes

Scopes

Histogram

Parade

Vectorscope

Waveform

Sharpen

Sharpen

Unsharpen

Sharpen

Sharpen

Unsharpen

Stylize

Cartoon

Emboss

Find Edges

Glow Darks

Oil Painting

Photorama

Posterize

Solarize

Threshold

Tint

Stylize

Cartoon

Emboss

Find Edges

Glow Darks

Leave Color (Starter Pack)

Oil Painting

Photorama

Posterize

Solarize

Threshold

Tint

Temporal

Echo

Motion Trails

Speed

Time Displacement

Time Reverse

Temporal

Echo

Motion Trails

Speed

Time Displacement

Time Reverse

Video Clean Up

Clone Stamp

DeInterlace

Video Clean Up

Clone Stamp

DeInterlace

DeNoise (Repair Pack)

Grain Removal (Repair Pack)

Rolling Shutter (Repair Pack)

Wire Removal

Warp

Action Cam Lens Distort

Bezier Warp

Perspective Warp

Polar Warp

Quad Warp

Spherical Warp

Vortex Displacement

Warp

Action Cam Crop

Action Cam Lens Distort

Bezier Warp

Perspective Warp

Polar Warp

Quad Warp

Spherical Warp

Vortex Displacement

Additional Features Unique to Hitfilm Pro 2017.

Use third-party OpenCL effects from companies like Red Giant, NewBlue and others.

Project Sizes up to 8K (HFE 2017 2017 tops out at 4k)

Maximum media sizes up to 8k (HFE 2017 tops out at 4k)

32-bit colorspace (HFE 2017 maxes out at 8-bit)

Scopes Panel--Yes I'm counting scopes twice. The Scopes Panel allows working with Scopes like most other NLE's. The Scopes EFFECTS allow rendering your scopes to your projects. That might be unique to Hitfilm. I can't think of another NLE that can render its scopes.

External Monitor Support--run a full-screen preview of your project on a second screen.

@Triem23 how did you do that effect on the HitFilm logo in HitFilm? The first 10 seconds in first video.

And I did read once that many users are jumping on the Davinci cause it supports 4K and Hitfilm Express didn't, so good to see Express now supporting 4K for those who can use it, and will promote many to use HitFilm over Davinci.

@Yeremyah that logo transition would require the Destruction add on pack in Express. It's basically two instances of the Shatter effect where I cranked up the viscosity settings and turned down gravity so the pieces would come to a complete stop. Then the "reform" segment was Time Reversed. A heaping helping of light rays disguises the cross-dissolve between the two shots. I might do a quick tutorial and build a template for Hitfilm Preset Marketplace.

@Triem23 "Simplicity" is relative and very subjective to an individual. It all comes down to personal mental faculties, cognitive function, overall reasoning and mental health, current awareness, knowledge and experience in a particular area, and current conditioning.

What may be "simple" for one person, may be very challenging and difficult for someone else.

Does HFE limit project size to if you don't meet the GPU or other minimum requirements?

I am running HFE 2017 (5.0.0067) on a Macbook Pro 13" with integrated graphics (which I know does not meet min. requirements) and everything seems to function fine but the largest project size in my list is 2K and I cannot create a custom size beyond 2048px in height or width.

Must say I'm very impressed with HFE so far. Briefly tried Davinci Resolve and although it would open (with a big warning about GPU support) it would crash immediately when I tried to do anything. Even if it worked I suspect it would be much more sluggish than HFE (speculation though) as it's seems like it has a lot more overhead.

HFE has been lightweight and stable. Perfect for the simple Timelapse projects I've been starting out with. Looking forward to more editing and being able to share projects between my laptop and main editing rig when necessary.